Director: Nia DaCosta
Distributor: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 91 minutes
Candyman (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
In our age of reboots, remakes, and unwanted sequels, we didn’t expect Candyman to resurface. Even though horror movie buffs will know the 1992 classic, there wasn’t a real reason for this movie to get a sequel in 2021. Nonetheless, here we are, and against all odds, we actually had high hopes for this revival of the one-shot cult classic. Sadly, outside of a few nifty and eerie shots, we were left with a political dribble that made us fall asleep faster than any ASMR backdrop could. It seems in this scenario the candyman can’t.
Candyman revolves around the painter Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and his girlfriend Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris), who just happens to be an art gallery director. The couple is living happily together and things seem to be going well, but Anthony is struggling to come up with ideas for his next exhibition. When Brianna’s brother, Troy (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), tells a spooky story about the ‘Candyman’, Anthony soon finds himself obsessed with the urban legend. The further he dives into the ghastly tale, the more he realizes the legend is actually true.
Even though the movie itself isn’t that long, it feels very long-winded and has a lot of pacing issues. The movie struggles to find the direction it wishes to head towards and this damages the film’s quality beyond repair. Even though this new rendition of Candyman has some absolutely superb scenes thrown in the mix, they get shattered by the constant political drivel that flows in between all the events that unfold throughout the movie. The constant bringing up of ‘race’ became almost laughable, and the only thing that was missing were two counters in the corners of the screen to indicate how many times ‘white’ or ‘black’ had been said throughout the course of this supposed horror flick. We are utterly disappointed with this approach, as the movie truly has some eerie moments that respect the source material. We don’t mind adding some political items to the mix, but this sequel forgot its roots, namely that of a horror film. We also wish to mention that the main character’s arm is literally rotting away for everyone to see, and not a single person tells him to pay a doctor a visit. It’s absolutely ludicrous.
As a whole, the acting performances in the movie aren’t bad. Sadly, the cast members have to work with a poorly written script, and it’s actually Colman Domingo that truly steals the show with his acting prowess. We were very impressed by his role in the movie, and we wished he had received a bit more screen time. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II also handles his role with grace and acts as a very suitable lead for this Candyman sequel. Other cast members only put down one-dimensional performances, making their characters superficial filling, rather than people you start caring about.
The Blu-ray version of Candyman comes with loads of special features. We get to learn more about the creative process behind the movie, ranging from special makeup to how the shadow puppet theaters were filmed. As a whole, all the additional features add a lot of value to warrant buying a physical copy. Other than the creative extras, we also get deleted scenes, as well as an alternate ending.
Conclusion
Candyman is a politically loaded decoction of the original 1992 movie. Even though some scenes in the film were absolutely spot-on, the overall experience gets overshadowed by the constant political banter that makes this movie into something totally different than an authentic horror experience. This could have been an amazing movie, even with political themes in the foreground, but we feel like the director wanted to force a message upon its viewers, while not being able to actually convey said message. Perhaps if you can find a physical copy in a sales bin, this one is nice for your horror collection, but you could simply turn on the news if you’re in the mood for politics and violence.
Candyman (Blu-ray) - Movie Review,
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